ABSTRACT

Eco-control draws on the spectrum of possible controls available to keep an organisation on track towards achieving its environmental and economic objectives. For a large number of companies, eco-control provides the basis of comprehensive environmental management systems (EMSs). External regulation of such control systems combines with management control. The chapter provides an overview of the most important regulations and standards relating to corporate EMSs. It reviews important methods of corporate environmental management. The chapter discusses the approach to eco-control, noting environmental accounting provides a core element in any EMS and in eco-control. It also discusses International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 14031, the ISO standard on environmental performance evaluation that can be combined with either of the international EMS standards. Social Accountability 8000 was the first international standard to deal with the audit of the basic rights of employees. As a rule the certification organisations and the certifiers have publicly accessible lists of the organisations that they audit.